The law against degraded housing in the Senate, while waiting for better

The debates, which should start at the end of the afternoon, will mark the entry on the scene of the new Minister Delegate for Housing, the Macronist Guillaume Kasbarian, responsible for defusing the "social bomb" feared by those in the sector.

At the Assembly in January, against a backdrop of unfinished reshuffle, the absence of a minister specifically responsible for this portfolio to debate the government's text had irritated the oppositions. Without preventing its adoption with flying colors at first reading.

“Given the urgency of the situation, we are today expecting much broader provisions which would make it possible to respond to the housing crisis,” observes centrist senator Amel Gacquerre (UDI), rapporteur of the bill, echoing to a wish widely expressed in the Assembly.

But failing to be "the major housing law" expected, this "toolbox is welcome" to tackle substandard housing, she told AFP. Because it “comes from the field” and tackles a phenomenon which does not only concern “the big bars” in the Parisian suburbs but also “small buildings in small towns”.

Renovate rather than demolish

To support the more than 114.000 co-ownerships which are in difficulty according to the government, the bill aims in particular to facilitate the launch of work upstream, before permanent deterioration requires demolition.

In particular, it is creating a collective global loan to improve access to credit for co-owners. As well as a new procedure for the expropriation of housing affected by a danger or unsanitary order.

To fight against slumlords, who exploit vulnerable people by renting them housing in poor condition, the text strengthens criminal sanctions.

The deputies added an additional penalty: the impossibility, for up to fifteen years, for these landlords to acquire real estate other than their main residence.

The senators also intend to enrich the copy. Concerning the new expropriation procedure, they have already added in committee a provision allowing "temporary rehousing" of occupants in temporary constructions.

In favor of the collective loan for co-ownerships, the senators however deplored in committee the lack of financing of the "public guarantee" which the government had added via an amendment in the Assembly, to the point of removing it.

“We want there to be a clear message” from the executive during the public session on the resources it intends to mobilize for this guarantee to be effective, argues Ms. Gacquerre.

Offer shock

In committee, the senators also reshaped one of the main additions of the deputies, considered too vague: the creation of “collective interest trustees” with recognized competence to take over the reins of fragile co-ownerships.

In particular, they want the question of their remuneration to be clarified. And in the senatorial version, social housing operators would no longer be “deemed” to automatically meet the criteria to fulfill these functions.

To better take into account small co-ownerships in city centers, the senators also want to give mayors the possibility of carrying out an automatic structural diagnosis of buildings in degraded housing areas.

Beyond the targeted and technical object of the text, the presence of the minister during the debates "should make it possible to see more clearly" on "his overall roadmap" to meet the challenge of the housing crisis, hopes the rapporteur Gacquerre.

The Prime Minister has already given some directions, ensuring that he wants to "go after all possible housing with his teeth" by creating a "supply shock".

Among the options, Gabriel Attal mentioned "raising the height, particularly in the city", the possibility of better using the space "around individual pavilions", the transformation of offices into housing or even the doubling of the production of intermediate rental housing.

A criticized modification of the SRU law, which sets quotas for social housing in certain municipalities, must also be presented before the summer.